Battleships Are A Bargain All Around

August 15, 1985|By James J. Kilpatrick, Universal Press Syndicate

WASHINGTON — When it becomes operational in 1989, the battleship Wisconsin will make its home port in Corpus Christi, Texas. That announcement a few days ago from Navy Secretary John Lehman was good news from Galveston to Brownsville, but the pleasant thing about Lehman's rebirth of the battleship is that the program is good news all around.

The Wisconsin will be the fourth and last of the big ships to be taken from mothballs and returned to duty at sea. The New Jersey, based in Long Beach, Calif., came on line two years ago. The Iowa, which temporarily is in Norfolk, Va., came next. The Missouri will join the Pacific fleet toward the end of this year and will work out of its home port at Treasure Island, San Francisco.

The taxpayers have become so inured to the astronomical costs of defense that they should welcome the story of Lehman's broad-beamed babies. The four battleships will average something in the neighborhood of $400 million each. That is less per ship than the cost of a new frigate. It is like getting a low-mileage used car with no wear on the tires.

In return for its $400 million, the Navy gets a mighty platform for the kind of sustained bombardment that only a big ship can deliver. Each of the ships is fitted with the latest state of the art in missiles and electronic equipment. Despite the weight of their 19-inch armor, the battleships can show their sterns to any companion vessel. They are formidable weapons of war.

Lehman recalls with satisfaction the New Jersey's role off Beirut at the peak of the fighting there. Parts of the city systematically were destroyed by artillery from the hills to the east. The New Jersey opened fire with its 16- inch guns. Though it was impossible to correct aim through spotters (ground coordinates had to be used), the ship delivered 301 rounds before retiring. Each round weighs 2,250 pounds. Says Lehman: ''The artillery stopped.''

When the Wisconsin joins the Atlantic fleet four years hence, it will just about complete the restoration of our naval presence in the Gulf of Mexico. Corpus Christi will get the Wisconsin, with its crew of 1,500, along with the training carrier Lexington and several other ships. Pensacola, Mobile, Pascagoula, Galveston, New Orleans and Lake Charles also will have a piece of the home-port action.

The benefits are substantial. Lehman's advisers estimate that the Corpus Christi area will see an economic impact of $500 million a year once the plan is fully developed. Twenty-nine ships, all told, will be engaged in surface operations out of the Gulf. They represent a bonanza for merchants and builders. The Navy investigated 16 sites for the Wisconsin's home port and narrowed the list to six, but it was no contest. Texas put up $25 million and the taxpayers of Corpus Christi committed themselves to an extra $25 million in bonds. Says Lehman, ''We got a bargain.'' The whole nation will share it.